A Look at Dr. Jon Kaiser's Complementary Approach to HIV/AIDS

by Henry DreherFrom Penguin Books USA, Inc.

January/February 1997

Eight years ago, a San Francisco internist made public a breakthrough
program for the reversal of heart disease. In a landmark study, Dean Ornish,
MD, proved that intensive changes in lifestyle -- diet, exercise, and mind-body
healing -- could literally reopen the blocked arteries of patients who had
suffered heart attacks. Ornish's findings represented a stunning challenge
to the prevailing medical approach to heart disease. Cardiologists would no
longer have to rely exclusively upon drugs, balloons, and open-heart surgery
to either burrow or bypass blockages that threaten the lives of people with
heart disease.

As it happens, Ornish's arguments have yet to win the hearts of most
conventional cardiologists. But he has made more significant inroads into
mainstream medicine than perhaps any other practitioner of
scientifically-based alternative healing. His books have occupied
best-seller lists throughout the 1990s. His alternative program is the first
of its kind to be covered by a major insurance company. Ornish's approach is
a model for how breakthroughs in natural medicine may be integrated into the
mainstream to benefit thousands of suffering patients. Yet no other leading
figure in alternative medicine has made a similarly compelling contribution
to the fight against a life-threatening disease.

That may soon change. Another San Francisco internist appears en route to
a similar kind of breakthrough, but this time the challenge is the most
vexing infectious disease of our time -- AIDS. The internist is Jon Kaiser,
MD, and like Ornish he does not reject mainstream treatments. Rather, he
offers a new program that radically shifts the emphasis away from drugs
toward natural therapies that raise the patients' own healing capacities to
heretofore unimagined levels. Dr. Kaiser's work represents not only a
potential leap forward in the fight against AIDS, if offers a new approach to
immune empowerment for anyone -- sick or well -- whose immune system may be
vulnerable.

Dr. Kaiser's brand of AIDS medicine can only be called complementary, since
he uses natural therapies -- including nutrition, supplements, herbs, natural
hormones, and mind-body techniques -- in conjunction with mainstream diagnosis
and treatment. But his work embodies the famous passage in the Hippocratic
Oath, "first do no harm," as natural therapies take precedence over
potentially toxic drugs in his therapeutic schema.

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What appears to set Kaiser apart from most alternative AIDS healers is that
his approach is both more systematic and nuanced. He embraces natural
medicines as primary therapies, but he does use antiviral drugs, when needed,
in an exquisitely judicious fashion. The payoff has also set Kaiser apart
from his colleagues in AIDS medicine: data compiled from his case files
reveal an astonishing degree of clinical success.

As of March, 1994, Dr. Kaiser had for seven years tracked the progress of
300 of his HIV and AIDS patients. Only 20 of them had died. And Kaiser
believes that improvements in both natural and mainstream AIDS therapies are
yielding even better results today. "At this point, paitents in my practice
whose disease is progressing are the rare exceptions," says Kaiser. "It is
clear now that many of my patients are reversing damage caused by HIV and
actually rebuilding their immune systems."

Dr. Kaiser's work is gaining ground, not only because he has a following
among patients in San Francisco or those who've have read his book, Immune
Power (St. Martin's Press, 1993). It is also drawing attention from leading
lights in complementary medicine, including Dean Ornish himself, who has
personally encouraged Kaiser in the development of his clinical programs and
research endeavors. "Jon Kaiser is doing important work in examining the
roles of diet, nutrition, and psychosocial support in the treatment of
HIV-positive patients," says Ornish.

Back from the Brink

One of those patients is Kenneth, a high-strung, 41-year old manager at a
telephone company office in New England, Two years ago, Kenneth began losing
weight at a frightening clip. He suspected that the cause was HIV, but did
not want to dwell on the possibility and kept up his heavy work schedule.
Six months and 40 pounds later, Kenneth was alone at home when he collapsed.
He barely found the strength to call his family and finally confide, "I'm
falling apart."

Want to know if your immune system needs shoring up? A trip to the doctor
or clinical immunologist might be a good idea, especially if you worry about
an underlying illness. But comprehensive tests of immunity cost thousands of
dollars, and they won't be ordered unless you exhibit signs of particular
disease. What if your problem is nagging symptoms and the suspicion of a
low-lying immune imbalance? Use this checklist as a guide to determining
whether you should commit yourselves fully to the accompanying eight-step
program for immune empowerment.

Do I constantly get colds, the flu, and bronchitis?

Do I experience upper respiratory infections that "hang around" for days, weeks, or even months?

Have I experienced bouts with mononucleosis or shingles? (These result from the re-activation of dormant viral infections.)

Do I have seasonal allergies that never quit, even if I've tried allergy
shots and over-the-counter remedies?

Do I often experience shortness of breath and a barely detectable wheezing? (You may be experiencing bronchospasm, a mild case of asthma that results from exposure to dust, smoke, or allergens.)

Do I have food allergies, or unexplained symptoms that I suspect are caused
by food allergies?

Do I have a chronic inflammation that never seems to go away? (i.e.,
osteoarthritis, skin conditions, or urinary tract infections.)

Am I chronically tired, although not so badly that I can't function? (When
you can't function, see your doctor about chronic fatigue syndrome.)

If you've answered yes to even one of these questions, use common sense to
determine the severity of your condition. If it is either seveve or
recurrent, consider the eight-step immune empowerment program as a
comprehensive alternative approach. If you've answered yes to more than one
or as many as six or seven, see your doctor and, in addition, find an
alternative practitioner to guide you as you embark upon the immune
empowerment program. The only thing you have to lose are your chronic
symptoms.

Kenneth's doctor told him the bad news: His rapid weight loss, known as
"wasting," was the result of an opportunistic AIDS infection. His doctor
prescribed an antiviral agent to combat the infection, as well as AZT, then
the most commonly prescribed anti-HIV drug. But his doctor still pronounced
his prognosis very poor. "There was no way I was expected to recover from
that," recalls Kenneth. "My family and I had my plot picked out."

The drugs did not stop Kenneth's decline. He was losing hope as
precipitously as he continued to lose weight. The first glimmer of optimism
came when his pharmacist mentioned the name Jon Kaiser, describing him as a
San Francisco doctor who combined mainstream and alternative therapies.
Kenneth called Kaiser and made an appointment for a month later. By the
time of his appointment, 70 pounds had been shed from Kenneth's 6-foot frame.
He barely made it from the airport to Kaiser's clinic.

Kaiser well remembers Kenneth's first visit. "When I first saw him he
weighed 150 pounds, had almost no T-cells, was suffering with CMV
(cytomegalovirus) related colitis, chronic diarrhea, and wasting. The
doctors had given him months to live and he was, as you might imagine, very
depressed. One of the first things I did was say, 'Forget about what your
doctor has said. Concentrate on the belief that you are going to turn this
thing around. You're going to fight your way back and live several years, if
not much longer.' "

Kaiser's words not only revived Kenneth's spirits, they were the necessary
spur for him to make radical changes. With Kaiser's guidance, he went on a
diet of natural foods that included a high intake of protein, vegetables, and
grains. Dairy foods, processed foods, and excess oils were scratched from
his menu. He began a regimen of vitamin/mineral supplements as well as
Western and Chinese herbs for cleansing the bowels and buttressing the immune
system. Regular exercise and relaxation techniques became part of his daily
routine. Kaiser prescribed hormones such as DHEA and testosterone shots in
order to rebuild his muscle mass, improve his immune function, and raise his
energy levels. He also prescribed medicines to prevent pneumonia and added
modest doses of another antiviral, DDI, to his pharmeceutical regimen.

Kenneth's emotional state was buoyed by Kaiser's no-holds-barred approach.
He managed to stick with his demanding regimen, including 100 pills a day
and vigilant attention to safeguarding his health and well-being. One month
later, he noticed the first clear-cut improvement: his diarrhea was gone.
Soon, the scale showed more such evidence as poundage gradually returned.
Every month, he consulted by phone with Dr. Kaiser, who for Kenneth was part
physician, part holistic guide, and part sideline coach in a spirited fight
with the HIV virus. "He was always completely honest with me, encouraging me
in strong terms to move back to healthy behavior," says Kenneth. "He's been
like a Guardian Angel."

Today, two years later, Kenneth's T-helper cell count has risen from the
single digits to near 200. (Normal counts range between 1000 and 1500,
though HIV patients with T-helpers over 200 often remain healthy.) His
weight is up from 150 to well over 200 -- normal for him. His opportunistic
infection and diarrhea have vanished. Against all odds, Kenneth currently
has no remaining symptoms of HIV or AIDS.

Kaiser's Program: The Best of All Worlds

Kenneth's story is no isolated anecdote. According to Kaiser, about
three-quarters of his patients are continuously symptom-free. Their T-cell
counts -- a key index of health for HIV patients -- have either remained stable
or increased. And, based on his own careful observations, his patients with
full-blown AIDS live longer, are hospitalized less frequently, and have fewer
chronic symptoms than similar patients who rely only on conventional
medicine. In Immune Power, something of an underground hit, Dr. Kaiser
included a comparison of survival rates among his own patients with
full-blown AIDS and those who received standard treatments of the late 1980s
and early 1990s. After 27 months, 80% of Kaiser's patients had survived,
compared to only 50% on conventional medicine, as reported by the Centers
for Disease Control.

In the past few years, medical treatments for AIDS and HIV-positive
patients have unquestionably improved. But Kaiser still appears to be
getting significantly better results than those achieved with today's medical
programs. The key is his deft combination of treatments that buttress the
body and battle the virus. "When you try to promote healing from
life-threatening conditions," said Dr. Kaiser recently, "you can't limit
your options. You have to use an integrative mix of natural and standard
therapies, and to approach your illness from a spiritual point-of-view."

So powerful is Kaiser's "mix" that he is able to use surprisingly low doses
of antiviral drugs, when he uses them at all. The trick has been to
administer low doses of such drugs as AZT, 3TC, and protease inhibitors
alongside an immune empowerment program that includes dietary change,
nutrient supplements, herbs, exercise, and psychospiritual development.

Several years ago, as word spread about Kaiser's results, his caseload
became so unwieldy that he decided to join forces with a Dr. Marcus Conant, a
specialist with one of the largest AIDS practices in San Francisco. In a
unique comingling of mainstream and alternative medicine, Kaiser now heads
the Wellness Center within the Conant Medical Group. At the Center, he
oversees the natural therapies with the help of an appropriately diversified
staff of acupuncturists, bodyworkers, a nutritionist, and a physician
assistant, among others.

As with Kenneth, Kaiser treats his patients with precise attention to their
individual needs, making decisions based not only on test results, but also
on their unique stressors, lifestyle habits, medical history, and support
systems. This enables him to knit together a program tailored for each
patient, but one that generally includes these elements:

EXERCISE: One-half hour of enjoyable exercise per day that causes sweating (which signals removal of waste products and possible inhibition of viral
replication.)

STRESS REDUCTION: Deep relaxation practice two times per day for 15-20 minutes. Rest, emotional healing, social support, support groups, prayer and spiritual
development.

These elements underscore Kaiser's belief that it's not enough to rely on
antiviral artillery in a goose-stepping war against HIV. Military metaphors
may have their place in healing, but Western medicine's "hit it with all
you've got" strategy is too narrowly focused to outfox HIV, the wiliest virus
that scientists have ever encountered. Healing this disease, says Kaiser,
requires an equal emphasis on vanquishing a viral enemy and strengthening the
body's natural defenses.

The Key: "Dynamic Equilibrium"

Microbiologists have recently shown that exposure to HIV initiates a long,
drawn-out power struggle between invader and host. Over the course of many
years, what appears to be a quiet truce in an otherwise healthy person is
anything but. Immune "soldier" cells in the body are constantly fighting to
stay ahead of HIV as it reproduces itself. According to Kaiser, HIV-positive
people can outmaneuver the virus by strengthening their immune defenses with
diet, supplements, herbs, exercise, and mind-body medicine.

"The virus produces up to a billion particles a day, and the body loses and
replaces up to a million T-cells a day," explains Kaiser. "One can easily
imagine the enormous drain on our resources. Therefore, it's up to the
individual to take great measures to support their immune systems in that
fight. That includes getting enough protein and nutrients while conserving
energy and reducing stress. These efforts enable patients to achieve what I
call a 'dynamic equilibrium.' That's when the immune system keeps pace with
HIV, preventing active infection and keeping the viral load, as we call it,
at low or modest levels."

Where do antiviral drugs fit into this picture? A new class of these
drugs, called protease inhibitors, are now being combined in multi-drug
regimens that drastically reduce the amount of virus in the bloodstream
("Viral load" is the technical term, and it can now be measured with
precision.) In some patients, the virus can no longer be detected in the
blood after several months of this therapy. Given these findings, why
doesn't Kaiser view multi-drug treatments as the absolute best way to "keep
pace" with the virus?

Kaiser's answer is nothing short of adamant. Each antiviral drug, he
insists, carries the risk of severe side effects, including nerve system
damage, diarrhea, anemia, and liver inflammation. These effects can become
cumulative over time, exhausting the immune system and risking liver failure.
And there's still no proof that any of these drugs completely vanquish HIV,
which may continue to "hide out" in lymph nodes and other sites in the body.
Most importantly, in its infinite cleverness HIV can gradually become
resistant to most antiviral drugs, including the prodigious protease
inhibitors.

"Every time you add a new drug you start the clock ticking on resistance,"
says Kaiser, whose watchword when it comes to antiviral drugs is prudence.
"If you use too many drugs too quickly, you run the risk of having a patient
who develops multi-drug resistant HIV. I have already seen such patients."

Like a crafty baseball manager who saves his best relief pitcher for the
late innings of important games, Kaiser waits until just the right moment to
use the most powerful drugs, especially the protease inhibitors. "I view
protease inhibitors as an ace in your pocket," he explains. "If you can keep
winning hands without using them, you just keep winning hands. That way you
don't waste them."

Looking for Deeper Answers

Part of Kaiser's success appears to lie in his unremitting belief in the
body's own healing powers. His approach can be traced to his early
background in philosophy, which led him to question the basic assumptions
conveyed in his medical school training.

"I was always asking questions about why the body was breaking down," says Kaiser, recalling his initial exposure to theories of disease. "They were
always termed 'good questions,' but nobody had any answers. For almost all
the diseases, the solutions were either to cut it out, or kill it with drugs.
To me, that wasn't sufficient. I believed that if you understood why the
body had broken in the first place, you could get to the root of the problem
and reverse it. I was looking for deeper answers."

Between his first and second years of medical school at the University of
Texas, Kaiser got a job managing a health food store. He became a voracious
reader of books about natural medicine, and essentially taught himself
naturopathy and herbal medicine. "It became clear to me that getting away
from nature had helped to cause the breakdown, and geting back to nature
would be instrumental in correcting so many of those root causes." He began
to envision integrated treatments that could achieve new levels of success in
the treatment of cancer, heat disease, diabetes, and other chronic ailments
of our time.

After medical school, Kaiser went to the Kaiser Foundation Hospital in San
Fransisco, where he spent two years as an ER doctor and trained in internal
and family medicine. It was the early 1980s, when the first AIDS cases were
being reported -- many of them in the Bay Area. As it became clear that AIDS
was a rampaging infectious disease with no cure, Kaiser saw an opportunity to
contribute by developing an integrated program for immune empowerment.
"There I was in San Francisco when the AIDS epidemic was starting to peak,"
recalls Kaiser. "I saw it as an interesting intersection of preparedness,
opportunity, and destiny."

In those days, AIDS was virtually untreatable. Kaiser's awareness of this
crisis, coupled with his dissatisfaction with mainstream medicine, led him to
a fateful decision. "You come to a personal crossroads, where you say, 'It's
now or never.' So I opened my own clinical practice with just one patient.
To supplement my income, I continued to moonlight in emergency rooms."

During the past decade, Kaiser's clinic has grown into a one-of-a-kind
Wellness Center where people with HIV and AIDS get the kind of care that
addresses their biological, nutritional, psychological, and spiritual needs.
The recent move to join forces with the Conant Medical Group has
strengthened his ties to mainstream AIDS doctors, some of whom have come to
appreciate Kaiser's contribution. Considering the severity of their
conditions, the atmosphere at the Wellness Center, where HIV patients and
others with immune dysfunction come for integrated care, is decidedly upbeat.

"When I speak to the new patients, they say that this program is exactly
what they've been searching for," comments Pramela Reddi, the clinic
administrator at the Wellness Center. "They've been looking for a physician
who has all the requisite medical knowledge, but who also knows diet,
supplements, and herbs, a doctor who believes in massage and acupuncture.
Also, Dr. Kaiser has a frank and open relationship with his patients. They
feel they are getting all of their needs met."

To ensure that his patients get their needs met, Kaiser has a physician
assistant on staff, Martin Kramer, who can always be reached to respond to
patients' day-to-day symptoms or concerns. Some patients come to the
Wellness Center after unpleasant or even traumatic experiences with other
doctors. "Many of them have had such bad experiences with Western medicine
that they are skeptical of everything you do," comments Kramer. But once
positive changes occur, the skepticism is quickly replaced by commitment. "I
wish I had before-and-after pictures of these patients," says Kramer, former
head of a free clinic for HIV patients in Haight-Ashbury. "The difference is
unmistakable, and you see it in their energy levels, their appearance, and
how they feel about themselves."

Mind, Body, Spirit, and HIV

A patient of Dr. Kaiser's for nine years, Michael Stokes's commitment to
his program has been unshakeable. When he started in 1988, it was not the
details of integrative therapy that cemented his choice as much as Kaiser's
aura of acceptance and conviction. "I liked his voice and his energy," says
Stokes. "Meeting him was like walking into a room where you feel calm and at
peace with whatever goes on there." The program's emphasis on natural
therapies also made sense to him. "I was exhilarated by the fact that this
doctor was doing something that fit so perfectly with my life."

Stokes, 46, was in the midst of a personal upheaval when he first came to
Kaiser. Not only had he lost his job and split with his lover, an HIV test
informed him that he'd also lost his health. The discipline of Kaiser's
program helped Michael put the pieces of his life back together. He began
participating in a small psychological support group for HIV patients led by
Kaiser, a group that continues to meet to this day. And he began the regimen
of natural therapies that remains his daily touchstone. But Michael has made
exceptional efforts to commit himself to the emotional and spiritual aspects
of Kaiser's healing program.

Without fail, Michael meditates twice a day for a half-hour. He spends
time writing down affirmations, statements about his care for his body and
spirit that have meaning for him. And he has followed one of Kaiser's most
unorthodox prescriptions: writing letters to the HIV virus. "For me, it has
been a process of befriending the virus, because I know that it's something I
will probably have to live with for the rest of my life," says Michael. "The
virus came into my world and put me on the path that got my life in order. I
was actually searching for that before I was HIV-positive."

According to Kaiser, writing such letters enables a person to work through
troubling thoughts and feelings about their condition. "You can look at
what's going on between you and HIV as a relationship," says Kaiser. "If you
uncover a great deal of fear and negativity, writing letters can help you to
evolve the relationship into a more positive one." This technique, which he
only recommends to patients who feel they will benefit, is rooted in Kaiser's
concept of a healing psychological attitude toward HIV.

"You should not be at war with HIV for the rest of your life," comments
Kaiser. "If you are, you'll lose a great deal of time and energy. I think
it's important to view HIV as a teacher or a catalyst, a positive stimulus
for growth and change. But if HIV starts behaving aggressively, I also think
its important to show it that you mean business. You'd like to be in harmony
with it, but if it doesn't respond appropriately you need to show it
strength."

By emphasizing stress management -- meditation, visualization, affirmation,
prayer, and group support -- Kaiser helps his patients live harmoniously with
HIV. (Research in the field of psychoneuroimmunology suggests that mind-body
techniques can indeed buttress the immune system.) At the same time, he
holds his antiviral firepower in reserve for times when the virus "behaves
aggressively." Some patients never need the antiviral armamentarium.
Michaeal Stokes, for one, has remained completely symptom-free for the past
nine years without antiviral drugs. Michael says that he's learned to live
in balance with HIV, and as a result his whole life has moved into balance,
with a new profession, a solid support system, and a sense of joy in his
daily activities.

Immune Power for Everyone

To what extent does Kaiser's "immune power" program apply to people with
other immune-associated diseases, or those who simply want to strengthen
their resistance? Kaiser also treats people with cancer, chronic fatigue,
and autoimmune disorders. With certain key exceptions, the program he
recommends is the same.

For non-HIV patients, Kaiser says, there is no need for anti-viral drugs or
antiviral botanicals such as Glycyrrhiza (licorice root). But for everyone
with weakened or imbalanced immunity, Kaiser recommends "a high potency
multi-vitamin, extra vitamin C, coenzyme Q10, and perhaps acidophylllus. You
would take herbs in a preventive fashion. You'd make sure to get a lot of
garlic, which is an antimicrobial. You would take echinacea [an established
immune builder] and chamomile to calm your nerves. You would exercise
regularly, and practice stress reduction continually. You would consider
DHEA or other hormones when your system is depleted, though not if you are
generally healthy. Finally, you would begin to view your life as a spiritual
journey, in which the roadblocks gave you reasons to learn and grow."

Kaiser's believes these guidelines apply not only to people with
immune-associated diseases, but also to people beset by low-level symptoms of
immune impairment -- constant colds, nagging infections, chronic exhaustion.
[See BOX 1, "A Checklist for the Immune Compromised.") Distilling those
approaches to apply to everyone, we have identified eight key steps to immune
empowerment. [See BOX 2, "Eight Steps to Immune Empowerment."]

In applying these components, an important caveat should be kept in mind.
For years, we've been regaled by the media to "boost," "stimulate," or "jump
start" our immune systems. Dr. Kaiser's work teaches us that in many
instances, boosting immunity is exactly what's not needed.

In fact, Jon Kaiser generally avoids stimulating his HIV patients' immune
systems. Why? Both immunizations and infections, to name two examples,
stimulate the immune system but can be a disaster for people with AIDS. "Once the
immune system is stimulated, HIV-infected macrophages divide, multiply, and
activate their DNA," he explained. "They begin making even more HIV virus."

For these reasons and others, Kaiser stresses immune power and balance, not
boosting. People with autoimmune diseases (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis,
multiple sclerosis, and lupus) experience disabling symptoms because their
immune cells mistakenly attack their own tissues. They need some parts of
their immune system suppressed, not stimulated. A common misapprehension
about patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is that their immune
systems are weak and need boosting. The truth is more complex: People with
CFS have overstimulated immune systems that eventually begin to flag. Their
symptoms are often caused by too much immune activity.

Kaiser embraces a principle reminiscent of the tonics of herbal medicine,
whose actions differ in the body depending upon the energetic needs of the
host. For instance, the Chinese herb astragulus is an immune enhancer, but
it is also a tonic, which means it will be used by the body as needed. Most
Western pharmaceuticals are designed as technologic magic bullets. By
contrast, tonics subtly interact with our body's cells and substances,
increasing the efficiency of our healing systems in a proportional fashion.

By this definition, mind-body-spirit practices are also tonics, increasing
the strength and tone of our systems rather than mechanically "boosting"
them. When used properly, psychotherapy, support groups, meditation,
biofeedback yoga, or bodywork are health-promoting choices that safeguard our
sense of meaning and purpose.

Jon Kaiser believes that complementary medicine will eventually triumph
over HIV and disorders of the immune system. He is certain that combining
the best of both worlds will ease suffering and lengthen lives. But he also
argues that it will save billions of healthcare dollars by lessening the current reliance on shockingly expensive drugs and acute medical care. Toward
that end, Kaiser is now pursuing funds and a research associate to compare
the long-term progress of his HIV patients with those who receive standard
care. He knows that a published study will provide the kind of evidence that
may finally alert the barons of healthcare to the cost-effcetiveness of his
approach.

In the interim, Kaiser spreads the word through his book and the free HIV
Health Fairs and workshops he leads throughout the country. But the
resistance to his work appears to be rooted in the fundamental philosophic
difference between his approach and that of mainstream AIDS doctors. I asked
him to define that difference. "Many physicians have little faith in the
body's ability to heal, and that is why they promote reliance on drugs,"
responded Kaiser. "I have every faith in the body's ability to heal, and
everything I do is designed to promote that ability."

The following eight-point program represents a distillation of the work of
Jon Kaiser's work with HIV and other immune-compromised patients. Absent
from the program are specific anti-HIV agents or strategies that may not be
needed for others.

Change your diet: Reduce animal fats, increase vegetables and fruits,
whole grains, and protein sources, stick with monounsaturated fats such as
olive and canola oils. Overall, an immune enhancing diet is low in fat, high
in protein, high in complex carbohydrate, and low simple carbohydrate, such
as starches and sugars.

Get Moderate Exercise: Walk, run, swim, cycle, and work out, but don't
overdo it: studies reveal that extremely strenuous exercise can dampen
immunity. By the same token, moderate regular exercise improves immune
functions -- especially the activity of "natural killer cells" that knock off
viruses and cancer cells in the body.

Use Acupuncture, Homeopathy, and Massage: By balancing the body's energy
systems and offsetting the negative effects of stress, acupuncture,
homeopathy, or massage may enhance immune functions. (Note: acupuncture and
homeopathy work in entirely different ways: pursue one or the other when
needed for a particular physical or emotional condition.)

Procure Emotional Support: Studies have shown that people with high
levels of social support and intimate relationships have stronger immune
systems and fewer illnesses. Research at Southern Methodist University in
Dallas has shown that confiding thoughts and feelings about traumas -- if only
by writing the down -- improves immune function.

Develop a Sense of Meaning and Purpose: Psychotherapist Lawrence LeShan has shown that cancer patients who find their raison d'etre often experience
physical improvements, or even long-term survival. In his research on long
AIDS survivors, UCLA mind-body pioneer George Solomon, MD, observed that they
invariably had a strong will to live and were engaged in meaningful
activities and relationships . If you are stymied in your search for
meaning, consult a psychotherapist who can help you work through creative and
emotional blocks. In scores of studies, prayer and spiritual pursuits have
also been associated with better overall health and healing.

Henry Dreher is a health and medical writer specializing in
complementary and mind-body medicine. He is the author of Your Defense Against Cancer and The Immune Power Personality, and coauthor of The Type C Connection: The Mind-Body Link to Cancer and Your Health; and Healing Mind, Healthy Woman. Mr. Dreher is a regular contributor to Advances: The Journal of Mind-Body Health, Natural Health, and numerous other periodicals.

Adapted by the author from an version that appeared in Natural Health Magazine (January/February 1997).

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